


The Sun's Daughter

by Netgirl_y2k



Category: A Song of Ice and Fire - George R. R. Martin
Genre: Bisexual Character, Character Study, F/F, Future Fic, Gen, Women Being Awesome
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-05-11
Updated: 2014-05-11
Packaged: 2018-01-20 21:40:53
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 5,115
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1526738
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Netgirl_y2k/pseuds/Netgirl_y2k
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Arianne is her father's daughter, her uncle's niece, and the first Princess of Dorne since the days of the first Daenerys to not bend-her-knee to the Iron Throne.</p>
            </blockquote>





	The Sun's Daughter

**Author's Note:**

  * For [nocowardsoul](https://archiveofourown.org/users/nocowardsoul/gifts).



Arianne Martell had long acted as the lady of Sunspear while her father resided at the Water Gardens - in name, at least. In truth Prince Doran had set an aging seneschal, a castellan, and Arianne's own uncle over her. Arianne had been responsible for little more than arranging feasts and revels. 

Things were much changed. Prince Doran and his brother were both dead, Arianne had retired Ricasso and Ser Manfrey, and she was the ruling Princess of Dorne in truth as well as name. 

Some things were much the same though, and Arianne still enjoyed a revel more than almost anything else. The feasts and games to celebrate her twenty-ninth nameday were to take place at the Water Gardens and would last for three days.

Ellaria Sand was to stay at Sunspear as castellan. "Truthfully, I like the palace best when it is peaceful," she said, "and I do not think I could bear to watch the games. I understand that my Elia is to ride as your champion in the joust."

Arianne was beginning to wish that she had not agreed to that. It had seemed like a very great jest when Elia first suggested it, and it had delighted the rest of the Sand Snakes... but now Elia was taking it terribly seriously, and it meant that Arianne had once again failed in her promise to Ellaria that she would make Elia behave as a proper lady-in-waiting.

"At the very least," said Arianne, "I drew the line at allowing your Dorea to compete in the melee with her morningstar." 

*

Arianne returned to her chambers to find Tyene Sand lounging on her bed. "Cousin," Tyene announced, "we have a guest."

Garin stepped into the centre of the room, flashed his easy grin, and mockingly dropped to one knee. "My princess."

"Get up, you idiot." Arianne tugged her milk-brother up into an embrace; she had not seen him in many months and had missed him fiercely. 

Tyene slipped from the bed and pressed a chaste kiss to Garin's lips, and then a less than chaste one to Arianne's. "I'll leave you two to catch up."

Garin mummed an attempt to catch Tyene. "Don't leave, beautiful." He smirked at Arianne and said, "Now _there's_ a pretty picture in my head."

Arianne knew he was just teasing. Of all her childhood friends... Sylva had grown up comely but she did not look at women in that way, Arianne had lain with Drey more than once, and Tyene was her paramour in all but name; but Garin had been more of a brother to her than any son of Prince Doran, and she had never even considered taking him to her bed, it was what made him so special to her. 

"Come," she said, "have some wine, tell me all your gossip."

Prince Doran had thought his daughter and her friends idle gossips, and he had not been wrong; but there was value in gossip to the princess who knew how to make use of it.

"The Shadow City and Planky Town are alive with the news that all who can travel to the Water Gardens will be welcome at your nameday celebrations - I hope your cooks are preparing enough food." Arianne waved a hand dismissively, and Garin continued, "Some of your lords and ladies have been heard wondering if a three day birthday party isn't... excessive?"

Arianne nodded. From her Uncle Oberyn she had learned the virtue of being beloved of the people, and from her father she had learned the value of being underestimated.

"So some think me a silly, frivolous gossip; they all called my father a dull, overcautious fool."

" _You_ called your father that," Garin reminded her.

"Yes, I did" Arianne agreed sadly. It was a source of lasting regret; had her father trusted her, she thought she would have proved herself an heir worthy of his trust. She hoped she had, before his end. "And what of the invitations?"

"The pirate queen has accepted the invitation to visit the Water Gardens as your guest, she is sailing for Dorne as we speak. The queen in the North hasn't replied either way, and it's hard to get a Northman to gossip even when you can find one to talk to. The storm lords hold that land for their little stone queen, and it's hard to know which of them holds the greatest influence with her; the men I spoke to say that they're claiming that heap of melted slag that was once the Iron Throne for her too. The borders of the Vale are still closed, and all the tales agree that the Riverlands are a scorched wasteland ruled over by a gang of warlords, and I rather thought that they'd bring down the tone of your party."

"And the Reach?"

"The Florents, the Redwynes, and surviving Tyrells are still squabbling over Highgarden; it might be best to wait a while and treat with the eventual victor."

Arianne agreed, and she bid Garin goodnight with a sweet kiss.

*

The princess and her court bid farewell to Ellaria Sand and left Sunspear for the Water Gardens early in the morning, hoping to beat the heat of the day. 

Arianne rode in a litter, as befitted a princess of Dorne; she kept it open to the sky so she could talk and make merry with her companions as they travelled. And they were a merry enough band, even after Garin departed for Planky Town - in pursuit of more _gossip_ \- and they were joined by Obara Sand. 

The eldest Sand Snake spent the lion's share of the journey arguing with her sister, Sarella. Obara had long harboured a deep hatred for the city of Oldtown, and she voiced hopes that if the Reach descended into outright civil war then the city would burn; Sarella was concerned for the loss of knowledge should some fool with an army fire the Citadel.

As the ruling princess Arianne's worry was that any such war might threaten Dorne, and she only half listened to her cousins quarrel.

"--I would have thought more anger would have befitted you, Sarella, after what the Citadel did to you."

"They took an ugly chain, Obara, one that was making my neck ache. They could not take the knowledge from inside my head."

Lady Nym met them on the road, riding up with the Fowler twins and the rest of the party from Skyreach. She greeted her sisters fondly, before kneeling and kissing Arianne's hands, "My princess."

Tyene rode alongside Drey and his brother Deziel, batting her lashes at them and saying utterly filthy things in her sweet septa's voice. Drey knew Tyene's tricks of old and laughed off her flirtations, but the elder Dalt brother looked near to falling from his horse. Tyene caught Arianne's eye and winked.

Elia Sand rode next to the litter, where Areo Hotah had walked in her father's day. Arianne sighed and wondered how she was going to explain to Ellaria that her eldest daughter had appointed herself, unasked for, Arianne's sworn shield.

*

When the princess's party arrived at the Water Gardens they were greeted by Maester Caleotte. Arianne had long since sent Maester Myles back to the Citadel; Sarella acted as maester at Sunspear, she was right that the conclave could not steal the knowledge from inside her head. But Maester Caleotte had served Prince Doran for long years and had eased his pain towards the end; he deserved nothing less than a peaceful and honourable retirement tending the small hurts of children at the Water Gardens.

"Would you like to bathe and rest, princess?" the maester asked. 

"Soon, first I think I'd like to visit with my father."

Prince Doran's bones had been laid to rest at the Water Gardens, within earshot of splashing water and laughing children. 

There was a part of Arianne that would forever be angry with her father for not teaching her more of what it meant to be a ruler; there was a part of Arianne that would always be angry with herself for not realising that he had much of value to teach her before it was almost too late. 

"I still miss him," said a voice that was both familiar and unfamiliar; Trystane's voice had not yet broken when Arianne had last spoken to him in person. She hadn't realised that her brother had already arrived. Trystane could not have beaten her by much, his clothes were still dusty and stained from the road. 

"He loved you deeply," said Arianne. 

It was no less than the truth. Trystane had always been a boy who was easy to love; the very idea that there were those in King's Landing who would seek to have him killed was what had ultimately convinced Arianne, her father, and the Sand Snakes to work so closely together in the last years of Prince Doran's life.

Arianne smiled and reached out her hand. Trystane was a man grown now - he overtopped Arianne, although he would never be tall by any measure - and too old to want to hold his older sister's hand, but he threaded their fingers together, and together they stood and mourned their father. 

Arianne had worried that Trystane would grow to resent her for sending him away from Sunspear, as she had once grown to resent Quentyn. But Trystane had been hard hit by the news of Myrcella's death, especially coming as it did so soon after their father's passing, and rather than leave him idle in Sunspear where his grief might fester Arianne had sent him to squire for Daemon Sand.

Her brother was looking much better that he had when Arianne had seen him last, she was relieved; she had resolved to be a better sister to Trystane than she had ever been to Quentyn. 

*

As she made her way towards her chambers Arianne ran across Daemon Sand.

"If you're looking for my brother," she said, "he's visiting our father's grave."

Ser Daemon nodded curtly and fell into step beside her. "I'll leave him in peace, then." 

Daemon had been Arianne's sworn shield on their ill-fated journey to Griffin's Roost to meet Jon Connington and the short-reigning King Aegon VI, and he had risked his life to get her back to Dorne safely before the second Dance of the Dragons broke out in earnest; even so, they had never managed to recapture their childhood closeness. 

"Trystane's doing well as my squire," he said. "It will soon be time for him to be knighted."

"When you feel it's time," Arianne began, "bring him to Sunspear, he should be knighted there."

"Why--?" Ser Daemon scowled, wrongly thinking that Arianne meant to have some other knight dub Trystane. 

"Because he is my brother and I am proud of him. And because at least for now he is still my heir, and his people should see him knighted."

Ser Daemon spared Arianne a sideways look. "People are starting to talk about that, you know. They say you spend more nights with Tyene Sand than with any man."

Arianne smirked. "Mayhap, but we are not often alone. Are you offering your services in that regard?"

Daemon's features darkened. "If a bastard is not good enough to marry one princess of Dorne, I would not expect that he's good enough to father the next one." 

It should have been an old hurt, that Arianne's father had refused Daemon's request for her hand, but Arianne had never met a man who could nurse a grievance like Daemon Sand. 

"You know, Ser Daemon," said Arianne with a laugh in her voice, "in all the stories it's the princess who insists the knight wed her before she beds him, not the other way around."

*

Arianne told Tyene of her encounter with Daemon Sand as they bathed before the feast in one of the Water Gardens' more secluded pools.

"I had a similar conversation with Sarella," said Tyene, coming up behind Arianne and pressing a kiss to her shoulder. "She pointed out the extreme unlikelihood of my getting an heir on you."

Arianne laughed, even as a child Sarella had the bad habit of poking her nose in where it wasn't wanted-- "What did you say to that?"

"I complimented her on all the obscure knowledge that she'd picked up in the Citadel."

"The pirate queen already has an heir," Arianne mused, leaning back against Tyene, her cousin's hands coming to rest on her hips, "and the girl in the Stormlands is young for it still, but I wonder if the queen in the North is hearing the same manner of increasingly unsubtle hints?"

"Mayhap she will come to your party and you can commiserate over it together?"

"I doubt it, Garin tells me that she hasn't left Winterfell since they crowned her; Starks don't do well in the south."

*

The tables for the first night's feast were set up outside, where the smell of meat roasting on spits mingled with the smells of the sea. Musicians, jugglers, and fire-breathers all performed for the princess's favour, and Arianne's lords and ladies presented her with nameday gifts of fine silks and precious jewels. 

Trystane presented her with a beautifully bound and illustrated copy of _The Ten Thousand Ships_ , which was Arianne's favourite book. 

"He's been carting that tome around with us since Oldtown," Daemon Sand was heard to complain, but he gave Arianne a golden bracelet in shape of a snake swallowing its own tail. 

Lady Nym gifted her with a gilded dagger with rubies in the hilt; it was lovely but purely ornamental. When Arianne had been young she had longed to be a Sand Snake more than anything, and Nymeria had tried to teach her to use a throwing dagger... an exercise that had ended with a winged, bleeding Drey, Nym in disgrace with Prince Oberyn, and Arianne in tears. 

Tyene's gift to her princess was a beautiful boy from one of the finest pillow houses in Dorne, to be shared between them. 

"You know me too well, sweet Tyene," said Arianne, pressing a kiss to the inside of her wrist. 

But the best gift of the evening came courtesy of Asha Greyjoy. The Ironborn had anchored their ships a few leagues down the coast and they arrived midway through the feast, with Maester Caleotte nearly tripping over his robes to stay ahead of them and announce them. In truth, the Ironborn were hard to miss; Arianne rather admired that about them.

"Princess Arianne." Asha Greyjoy, the queen on the Seastone Chair, greeted the princess of Dorne. 

"Your Grace, welcome to Dorne."

Asha waved a dismissive hand. "A greenlander term, Lady Greyjoy will do, or Captain Asha."

Asha's nameday gift for Arianne was a treaty between Dorne and the Iron Islands. It had been hammered out via ravens and discreet messengers for nearly a year, and Asha had come to the Water Gardens to see it signed.

The Ironborn had rarely raided so far south as Dorne - which was fortunate as the Dornish had no ships with which to repel them - but they were not well loved. They were part of the reason why Arianne was holding her nameday celebrations at the Water Gardens, she had wanted the treaty signed away from Sunspear, and without the interference of her more quarrelsome bannermen.

According to Garin's gossip Asha Greyjoy was a different manner of pirate. True, she had invaded the Shield Islands and the Stoney Shore, but rather than raiding and burning, she was settling her people there. And most importantly, Queen Asha wanted to see the Iron Islands ruled from King's Landing once again no more than Princess Arianne wanted that for Dorne. 

As well as the treaty Asha had brought her son and heir, Prince Egan Greyjoy, a boy of six, to be fostered at the Water Gardens for a year and a day to seal the alliance.

"I trust you'll return the favour once you have an heir of your own," Asha commented later, when Arianne was giving her tour of the Water Gardens at sundown, showing her the pools where her son would soon be playing. 

Two of Asha's men, as well as Daemon and Obara, were following at a discreet distance. Asha must have noticed Arianne rolling her eyes because she added, "Something I said, princess?"

"No, it's merely that... of late I find myself becoming bored with talk of heirs."

Asha nodded sympathetically. "Ah, I see. I was spared the worst of that. I was already pregnant with Egan by the time I took the Seastone Chair. Stannis Baratheon was not a cruel captor by any means, but nearly freezing to death with his army meant that the brewing of moon tea became the least of my worries. All the same, every now and then one of my men will forget himself and suggest that he should be the father of my next." 

"And what do you say to that, captain?"

"Not unless he wants to birth the child himself!"

Arianne laughed at that. It seemed that all the world was much the same, and women, even queens and princesses, had the same problems with men.

"I think we should return to your party, princess," said Asha. "The last I saw your salt wife was looking impatient for you to unwrap her gift."

*

It was nearing dawn when Arianne sent Tyene's beautiful boy from her bedchamber. The boy's hands overflowing with jewellery that Arianne had gifted him with in addition to whatever Tyene had already paid him. 

Tyene was curled up under the sheets, looking for all the world like an innocent to the pleasures of the flesh. Tyene lied well, even in her sleep. 

Arianne summoned a servant and asked for some moon tea to be brewed. It was while she was waiting for it to cool that Tyene awoke and stretched like a cat, the sheets slipping from her body. "Moon tea?" she asked, "I thought that you were in the business of making heirs these days."

Arianne thought back on what Asha had told her, about her own son being the product of an ill-timed liaison and a missed dose of moon tea, and to her conversation with Daemon Sand; whatever he thought the bastard of Godsgrace would make a suitable father for a prince of Dorne, a boy from the pillow house, no matter how beautiful, would not. 

*

The jousting began early the next morning. Arianne, still bleary-eyed from her late night exertions, took her place upon the stands overlooking the lists. She appreciated the refreshing breeze blowing in off the sea, as well the sight of several dozen beautiful knights in various stages of undress as their squires helped them into their armour. 

Drey was unhorsed almost at once. He was relieved to exchange his horse, armour, and the pretence of being a _proper_ knight for cool linens and the chance to join Arianne and Tyene on the stands, gossiping and snacking on stuffed olives. 

All but one of the queen's men were quickly out of the running too. "We don't ride much on the Iron Islands" Asha told Arianne, "but they'll make me proud in the melee."

When the competition broke at midday a light meal was served, with wine for those not riding in the afternoon. Arianne ate only sparingly before rising to greet the Estermonts who had arrived late from Greenstone. She had no great love for old Lord Eldon, who was one of the more insulting matches her father had suggested for her when he was trying to hide her betrothal to Viserys Targaryen, but she would gladly tolerate him for the chance to see her old friend Sylva Santagar again. 

"Lord Estermont," Arianne greeted the querulous lord, and then moved to embrace her beloved Spotted Sylva.

Sylva forestalled her by curtseying formally and saying, "My princess."

Arianne frowned, but returned the formal greeting, "Lady Santagar."

*

"Mayhap she's changed," Tyene suggested gently as she walked along the seafront with Arianne and Drey. Sylva had been warmer with the other two, but she'd greeted none of them like the childhood friends they were. "None of us have seen her since she was married off."

Arianne felt guilty about that, more so when Drey added, "You threatened to throw yourself from the Spear Tower if your father forced you to marry Lord Estermont, remember?"

"We were all punished for my mistake with Myrcella," said Arianne defensively. "You were sent to my mother's household, Drey, and poor Ser Arys--"

"Norvos wasn't so bad, and it was only for two years," said Drey. "Arys Oakhart did not live long enough to rue his mistakes. Sylva has been married for six years, and the old goat doesn't look any closer to going to meet the Stranger than he did back then."

"Do you want me to talk with Sylva?" Tyene offered sweetly, as though she was offering nothing more than prayers and a sympathetic ear.

Arianne considered this-- "No," she said regretfully. She hoped one day to be on friendly terms with the young queen on Dragonstone, and it would not do to have had a hand in the death of one of her storm lords. "Sylva knows your gift for poisons as well as any of us, Tyene, if she wishes to rid herself of her husband she will come to you herself."

*

When the jousting resumed Elia Sand knocked three men from their horses before being unhorsed herself by the Knight of Lemonwood. Deziel Dalt broke three spears against Asha Greyjoy's last remaining competitor, Tristifer Botley, before finally being brought down. 

In the final joust Ser Daemon Sand unhorsed Lord Botley, and Arianne kissed his lips sweetly before raising his arm to the sky and declaring him the champion. 

She couldn't help but notice the way Trystane's eyes shone as he ran up to Daemon, and the way he lingered before withdrawing with the knight's horse and lance. Arianne wondered if there was more to Trystane's greatly improved mood than hard work and travel? She knew that Daemon took both men and women to his bed, and all the gossip said that he had once been Prince Oberyn's lover. Once upon a time that had made for a _very_ pretty picture inside Arianne's head. 

So long as Trystane was happy Arianne wouldn't interfere, and for her brother's sake she probably ought to stop inviting Daemon into her bed.

*

"Shame," said Tyene when Arianne told her as much in bed that evening. They were both worn out from the previous night's amorous activities; Tyene had followed Arianne to her chambers and slipped out of her gown - habit, you know - but neither of them had been able to summon up the energy to do anything more strenuous than crawl into bed and talk between their yawns.

"I am pleased he won the jousting, though," said Arianne. "Although perhaps I'm just pleased that Elia didn't win."

Tyene lightly smacked Arianne where her thigh met her buttocks. "That's my little sister you're talking about."

"Exactly, there's already enough talk about you and I. Imagine if your little sister had crowned me the queen of love and beauty... which she would have done just to vex me. I'll almost be glad to see her off to Dragonstone."

Tyene quirked an eyebrow, questioning. In her youth Arianne had been careless with her trust, and she'd had no end of hard lessons on that subject: from her father, from Darkstar, and even from Areo Hotah, _somebody always talks._ But Arianne was not Prince Doran, she could not love someone without also trusting them with her whole heart. So she trusted her brother, Trystane, Garin and Drey, the brothers of her heart, as well as her beloved Tyene and the other Sand Snakes-- together they were enough to fill even a princess's heart.

"I'm sending Elia and Trystane to Dragonstone to meet the young queen there." Shireen Baratheon was not all that much younger than them, mayhap she would be impressed by the comely young prince and the girl jouster; and if it was true that the stone queen was little more than a puppet they might be able to discover which of her lords was pulling the strings. "Obara and Daemon are going with them in case they encounter any trouble." 

Tyene laughed lightly. "I remember when all your scheming was directed towards meeting eligible potential husbands; now all you think about is secret assignations with queens and princesses."

Before Arianne could respond Maester Caleotte knocked on her chamber door to tell her that Garin had arrived and was urgently awaiting her attention in her father's solar.

It was a timely arrival. 

*

Arianne's solar in Sunspear felt like _hers_ ; the solar in the Water Gardens still felt like Prince Doran's, mayhap because Arianne spent so much less time there.

Her father's cyvasse board was still set up on a table, and a cloaked figure wearing a Braavosi blade at her hip was fingering one of the elephant pieces. 

"Arianne," said Garin. The princess hadn't seen him when she'd first entered the room, the Northern girl with the sword rather drew the eye. "Might I present Arya Stark, here from Winterfell to negotiate on behalf of her sister, the queen in the North. Lady Arya, may I present Arianne Martell, the princess of Dorne."

Arianne nodded and Garin left the room, casting nervous glances at Arya's blade. In the usual course of things anyone admitted into the private presence of the princess of Dorne would have had their weapons taken from them, but if even half the stories Arianne had heard about Arya Stark were true then taking her sword would make very little difference. Arianne had written to Queen Sansa in friendship, she would just have to hope that the queen's sister meant her no ill.

Her sister's wolf, men called Lady Arya, they said she could change faces as easily as other women changed shoes; but they had said that Robb Stark couldn't be killed -- it did not do to go listening to _all_ rumours. 

"I should begin by saying--" Arya sounded like a sulky child repeating a lesson she had been made to commit to memory "--that my sister, Queen Sansa, harbours no ill-feelings towards Dorne. Indeed, she well knows that Prince Oberyn stood for her Imp husband when no other man would, and she remembers him well for it." Arya's lip curled in distaste when she mentioned her sister's husband, and Arianne liked her a little better for it. "But given the limits of geography, and that my sister is already wed, she is not sure what manner of alliance you are suggesting."

"Do you play cyvasse at all, Lady Arya?" Arianne asked; Arya was still holding one of the carved elephants from the game board .

"No, my sister does; Sansa considers herself a student of strategy in all its forms."

"My father once tried to teach me, he told me that it was best to know all the rules before you played the game."

"Good advice," said Arya. "I had a teacher in Braavos who would have said much the same."

Arianne picked up the dragon piece. "Yes, but knowing the rules does you no good when a self-made queen with three dragons comes along and reduces the Iron Throne to ash and blackened slag; suddenly the old rules no longer apply. I would offer the North the same alliance as I have with the Ironborn. One day soon the squabbling in the Crownlands will be over, and some fool will say that Iron Throne or no, why shouldn't all Seven Kingdoms be ruled from King's Landing once again, and then they will march. But even a man fool enough to fight a war on two fronts would balk at fighting a war on three."

"Yes," said Arya thoughtfully. "My sister no longer has any great love of King's Landing, I think she would agree to those terms."

Arianne imagined Sansa Stark, sitting in Winterfell, playing cyvasse and thinking on strategy, while her dangerous, quicksilver sister travelled the realms at her behest. 

"You remind me somewhat of my Uncle Oberyn, Lady Arya."

"She means that as a compliment, my lady," said Tyene, slipping into the solar. "My father was our princess's favourite uncle."

Arya's eyes darted dangerously between Arianne and Tyene. Arianne reached out and took Tyene's hand. "Lady Arya, might I present Tyene Sand, mine own paramour."

Arya relaxed and said, "Ah, Ned - Lord Dayne, as I suppose he is here - told me that was how things were in Dorne."

*

The third and final day of celebrations saw both Sarella and Asha Greyjoy compete in the archery competition. 

"I am not half the archer that my little brother was, but--" Asha said with a heavy shrug. And indeed the marksmanship competition was won by one of the Yronwoods. 

The melee was hard fought, but in the end it was won by one of Asha's Ironborn just as she'd predicted. 

"I have heard you are a great warrior, my lady," Arianne said to Arya, when asking if she wouldn't compete; _terrifying assassain_ were the words Garin had used.

Arya smiled a too-sharp smile and said, "I don't fight for sport."

*

At the feast on the last night Arianne ate orange segments from Tyene's fingers, Trystane and Elia eagerly discussed plans for their journey to Dragonstone, and young Prince Egan appeared to have been taken into the custody of the two youngest Sand Snakes. Asha Greyjoy and Arya Stark sat with their heads bowed together in deep conversation; Arianne wondered if Arya was here with her sister's approval to negotiate about more than an alliance with Dorne. 

The word _Riverrun_ reached Arianne's ears on the sea breeze. Arianne remembered how eager she had once been to journey to Riverrun to meet Edmure Tully; now there were no more Tullys and all the gossip said that the Riverlands were the eighth hell. If the Starks and the Greyjoys together thought they could do something with that cursed land then Arianne wished them all the luck of it.

"Shall we retire early?" Tyene suggested. "You did wish to ride for Sunspear early tomorrow morning."

"I--" 

The idea sounded wonderful to Arianne. But even in Dorne, it was one thing to have a female paramour, it was quite another to be thought to be bedding her exclusively when there was still no heir in sight. 

Tyene smiled sweetly and called over Arianne's shoulder, "Drey, are you free this evening? Your princess and I require your services." 

Arianne laughed with delight, it would be almost like old times.


End file.
